The Morning After
by Extraordinarily Extraordinary
Summary: The title says it all. I know it's a crappy title but please give it a shot? It's late and I'm in Castle withdrawal so don't judge my title making abilities! *CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SEASON 5! USING TWO SNEAK PEEKS AS PLOT LINES!*


**A/N: For a lack of a better title, this is called 'The Morning After'. I guess it fits. Umm, so it's random and has SPOILERS but I couldn't help it. I know there are a ton of these out there already, and there will be even more after Monday, but I wrote it so I'll post it.**

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned Castle, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.**  
**SPOILERS: Major spoilers! Major spoilers! Major spoilers for season 5. Most quotes here come directly from two of the sneak peeks!**

**Enjoy!**

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Everything is perfect. It's how he's always imagined it. Kate sleeping next to him, curled towards him with her hand peacefully resting upon his. The innocence of it all rather startling considering the night they just had.

He wakes up and looks to his side. But the bed is empty. Startled, because this dream had seemed _so _real, he bolts up and places his hand on the spot beside him. It's not warm but it's not cool either. That doesn't really tell him anything, he often rolls in his sleep and could have easily warmed the spot himself.

There's nothing around the room to indicate anything new. And he looks. He really looks.

But just when he's about to give up hope and sigh at yet another dream, he hears the movement in the hall. Suddenly his door is filled with the beautiful outline of Kate Beckett.

And not just Kate Beckett. Kate Beckett wearing his shirt. Only his shirt. Kate Beckett with sex hair and a smile on her face. She's carrying two cups of coffee.

"I made you coffee," she holds up the mugs to show him the obvious.

He hasn't seen her look this happy in... in a long time.

"So it wasn't a dream," he smiles at her, relieved that, for once, it was real. _Is _real.

"No, you definitely," she chuckles, "weren't dreaming." She sits down on the bed next to him and hands him his mug.

He doesn't know what to say. There are no words to describe how he's feeling.

"Wow, you were right," he says. Then, at the raise of her eyebrows, he adds for clarification, "I had no idea."

"So you liked it?" she asks him. There's an uncertainty about her that makes her seem so vulnerable, so innocent.

"Yeah," is really all he can manage to say.

"Even the part where..." she starts to say but he cuts her off as the memories of everything they did come back to him and he tells her that he especially liked that.

"I love that," he says.

"Me too," she smiles at him, reassured and relieved again.

Thirty seconds of quiet follow that and it's the least awkward it's ever been between them.

But then he has to ask the one question he needs an answer to, the one he's not sure he _wants_ an answer to, "So, you're on - on board with this, right? It's not some _Oh-I-just-quit-my-job-I-almost-died-and-I'm-in-crisis _thing?"

"Um, no, not for me," she shakes her head. She can see where he's coming from, he knows she can.

"Okay, me neither," he says excitedly. He mentally kicks himself (without letting it show) because of course it's not that for him. He _didn't _just quit his job and almost die.

"Okay, good," she says, relieved and still a little confused.

"Good," he repeats.

"But I um, I did just quit my job," she says, starting unsure but becoming more and more seductive by the second. "And I do have the day off."

She unbuttons her shirt a bit and catches him off guard. He stumbles on his words but still manages to get them out: "Yeah, I do...too."

"Really?" she teases.

"Yes," he gains his confidence back and starts to peel the shirt - his shirt - off of her shoulders. "So, what would you like to do today?"

And just like that, it's back to normal. She answers in a teasing voice, pretty much the same one she's used with him for years. It's identical to every other day, except now they're in bed.

"Um, I don't know. We could read?"

"We could watch TV," he suggests, playing along with her game.

"We could get something to eat," she scrunches her nose a little.

"We could do that, yeah," he agrees.

But now she's had enough. She leans into him - not that he's complaining, no, not by any means is he complaining - and she goes for a kiss.

He leans in too, to reciprocate, and he savours the moment. It's so simple, like it could happen every morning. And he hopes it does.

He hears the door slam from the front of the loft and he turns his attention away from her. He can feel her gaze still on him for a moment before she turns to look at the door.

"RICHARD? I'm home!" he hears his mother shout.

Shit. She's supposed to be in the Hamptons still. He pushes Kate off the bed and tumbles on top of her to the floor. She lets out a yelp - it's really cute though - and they land with a small thud. Together, in sync like always, they jump back up, cradling the blankets around them.

"Richard?" he hears his mother yell again.

"I'll be right out. Let me change?" he shouts back, hoping she'll steer clear if she thinks he's changing.

The look on her face says it all. She may be fully in this, but it's new and she is nowhere near ready to tell anyone, not yet. And especially not his mother the morning after.

"Stay here. Let me change. I'll distract them and you sneak out," he tells her.

She nods in relief and watches him rush to change.

Out in the kitchen, about ten minutes later, he finds his mother and Alexis at the counter. He greets his mother with a quick kiss to the cheek and then turns to his daughter.

"Alexis, are you hung-over?" is the only question he has. The look of his daughter...well, people might actually think she _was _his daughter.

"Well, the graduation festivities got a tad out of hand and Alexis called me from the party. I drove into town, I picked her up," Martha explains since Alexis is clearly too out of it to even try. "So please don't get angry."

"Why didn't you call me?" he asks his daughter.

"I tried. You didn't pick up," she mumbles.

Oh. Right. Yeah. He looks behind her and sees Kate shuffling around, getting her stuff together.

"Oh," he says. "Right." His eyes are trained on the door behind his daughter and mother. Where is Kate? "And that's on me." Oh, there she is. She's got her boots and jacket in her arms and she's sliding across the floor. He has to hold back a chuckle because she looks so cute and frazzled. "That's my bad," he tries to keep talking.

He watches Kate grab her chest in shock. She forgot her bra! He wants to yell to her, _Forget the bra! Go! You can get it tomorrow. _But that would give them away. He tries to tell her with his eyes, all the while telling Alexis, "Well, as your father, I have to say that I am deeply disappointed in you." Kate runs back to his room to hunt for her bra. She's never going to get out now! "And yet oddly proud."

Alexis groans and he watches the door again.

"Oh, honey, I'll get you a couple aspirins," Martha says and she turns to get the meds just as Kate leaves his room again - with a bra this time, he hopes - so he does the only thing he can think of: he grabs her arm to stop her.

"No, no," he says. "I'll go. I feel bad. TV was on and my phone must have gotten turned down. I should have answered. I'll go. It's the least I can do."

His mother seems to accept that and she sits back down on her stool. He walks over to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and grabs a bottle for Alexis. When he comes out, the front door is closing silently and he breathes freely again.

He hands the bottle of aspirin to Alexis and she thanks him before heading up to her room.

"Sleep it off," his mother tells her.

Once she's gone, Martha turns to Castle, "So, what was Kate doing here?"

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**Thoughts? Love it? Hate it? Please leave a review?**


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